Why is the LED filament lamp sold in Europe and America?

From New York to London, antique lamps are rapidly becoming a design necessity for retro bars, trendy restaurants and chic families, not only for energy conservation but also for people to buy.

These "vintage" bulbs look like the inefficient incandescent lamps invented by Edison in the 1878, encouraging people who like old bulbs to replace them.

By rearranging the LED chips in strips inside the bulb, the makers of the bulbs found that they could satisfy human desires for warm, natural light that the first generation LED bulbs could not provide.

"People are looking for the kind of sparkle and comfort that they see in incandescent bulbs," said Kristof Vermeersch, head of the global LED lighting product management at Philips Lighting. ”

In terms of lighting, changes in the trend can help drive the sale of LED bulbs. Because these bulbs need to be replaced every 10-15 years, more efficient, and incandescent bulbs need to be replaced several times a year.

"The real problem with LED lighting is that the life of the bulbs lasts a long time, so they don't have these replacement cycles," says Tom Rowlands-rees, analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The industry has found a way to attract customers and get people to pay for it, not just because it's needed, but because it's cool. ”

The 2008 Japanese company Ushio Inc. first demonstrated the LED filament lamp technology, and did not immediately receive attention. However, as the design improved and prices dropped, large manufacturers, from Philips to GE Lighting, began to produce.

AXP Marvell, a Californian company that sells led filament lights in the US, said: "When LEDs first appear, it looks like a foreign object," but when the LED filament light comes out, it looks like a familiar incandescent bulb. ”

Four years ago, led filament lamp market is very small, mainly concentrated in a few Nordic countries. Now shipments are growing fast, and Ledinside expects global markets to be up to $20 billion trillion by 2020.

LED filament lamps can also address the problems policymakers have been facing: they want to ban inefficient incandescent bulbs, but they are opposed by consumers who prefer old-fashioned looks.

According to a YouGov poll, nearly one-third of Britons who have supported the 2016-year-old have said they want to see the older bulbs return.

LED filament lamps can help speed up the replacement of incandescent lamps because of the more attractive appearance. The United Nations says lighting demand is expected to grow by 50% per cent over the next 20 years as power facilities in underdeveloped countries, and to avoid more than 390 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

However, it is difficult for consumers to distinguish between incandescent bulbs and led filament lamps. Big manufacturers, such as GE, say they need to do more to promote and publicize the benefits.

"LED sales are a very tricky issue because you have to teach technology to consumers and retailers," says Matt Sommers, GE's Lighting consumer innovation manager. "We can't expect the consumer to look at this thing and know what it is." ”